[becky2010]

Hi I was just wondering if anybody knows how much pharmacy textbooks in 1st year cost? Was just curious as my cousin did physio and he must have spent 100s on books so was just looking a rough estimate. thanks!

[petzneo]

Hey well done on getting into pharmacy...a lot of people ask the same question. Feel free to search previous posts BUT this has been asked so frequently that I will add it to the pharmacy degree guide on TSR.

Hope it will help you!

[becky2010]

thanks ill have a look :-)

[monkeyolsen]

The books are usually available in the library, and there are usually multiple copies. I was worried at first since I'm international, but I've found that I haven't really had to buy a book or use one much, and when I do need one usually you can find the ebook online if you look hard enough

[asian_doll]

they advise you to buy soo many books but to be honest for us, you didnt need to buy a single one to pass or even do well in the year. i got 69% using only my lecture notes.. and obviously if you need to look something up the books are always available in the library. its a bit of a waste spending so much on books you dont actually need

[petzneo]

(Original post by asian_doll)
they advise you to buy soo many books but to be honest for us, you didnt need to buy a single one to pass or even do well in the year. i got 69% using only my lecture notes.. and obviously if you need to look something up the books are always available in the library. its a bit of a waste spending so much on books you dont actually need

I agree... but to a point as there are a few books that every pharmacy student must buy (have a look at the pharmacy guide for that). After that, what books you buy depends on the university that the student is at i.e. depending on copies available in library

For first year buy the must have books and after that I think it is up to you what you need

[Ana*Haifa]

Don't buy books, waste of money.. majority of people don't use them and end up getting them from the library. You can renew your loans easily via the uni system. If you want to benefit from any books, buy a good Pharmacology textbook but that will probs cost you around 40-50

[monkeyolsen]

Like I said before, you honestly don't need to buy any books. Half the information you can find online or in your lecture notes, and most of the books' older editions are available as eBooks (just use google, you'll find them).
And if you really really need to use a book, then go look in the library, you will almost never find that all copies of the book have been taken out. Our library at Brighton also has some desk loan copies which are kept in the library at all times and are available for a couple hours at a time, so if your school's library has that, then take advantage of it.

Also, saves you the trouble of having to lug a heavy book around with you

[lisaelizabethjane]

I bought 3 textbooks in first year, one of which carried through for second year and the other two were rather inexpensive as far as text books go. I did not use them that much for revising the course content for exams etc (apart from the Physiology book which was a lifesaver) but I found mainly that the textbooks were essential for completing introductions/justifying interpretations and conclusions when completing Lab reports! Having said that, most of these books will be readily available at the library but many of the popular books will be on short loan (they were at Queens anyway) which means you can only keep them for 2days, and they carried heavy fines if they were late. I only spent maybe 100 - 150 pounds on text books so I could have them on hand without going to the library and I have to say they helped me a lot to understand concepts and complete my lab reports!

[lisaelizabethjane]

Having said all that you do NOT need all the books that your lecturers will reccommend, so try and figure out which are most relevant to you if any before you spend any money. Lecturers will reccommend you buy maybe 3 textbooks per module which is just not practical and very expensive. In reality you will only need one or maybe no textbooks for each module - and as I said if you don't wish to spend the money to buy them, recommended course textbooks will be in the library.

[zak100]

Well said, you don't need to buy all the recommended texts, but it's useful to have some of the most important ones. I spent roughly around £500 on books over the four years. Also bought a a really therapeutics book whilst doing my post-grad, which is still good to look at, now that I'm doing my prescribing course.

[petzneo]

(Original post by zak100)
Well said, you don't need to buy all the recommended texts, but it's useful to have some of the most important ones. I spent roughly around £500 on books over the four years. Also bought a a really therapeutics book whilst doing my post-grad, which is still good to look at, now that I'm doing my prescribing course.

Hey, can you please recommend me a good oncology book?

Thanks!

[Boneill]

Hi Lisaelizabethjane.I am starting pharmacy at Queen's in sept 2012. Could you give me advice for pharmacy please

[zak100]

Hi, I'm having a bit of a clear out and realised I have about 15 good pharmacy textbooks. These will cover the basics for the whole course. If anyone's interested, let me know. All the books are used, but in good condition, some are even annotated with additional notes!! If you want to buy the whole lot, it saves me the trouble of putting them on ebay individually.

[ScoobyB4]

(Original post by petzneo)
Hey, can you please recommend me a good oncology book?

Thanks!

With the way the field is moving now, probably better off with purchasing a subscription to the oncology journals/nature etc...

[petzneo]

(Original post by ScoobyB4)
With the way the field is moving now, probably better off with purchasing a subscription to the oncology journals/nature etc...

Wow that was an old post...I have now recommended 2 books on the pharmacy degree guide

I was not a fan of learning from journals until I did my final year of uni. Although I understand the usefulness of them, I would still want the basics to be written in one book for me to read.

I tend to use journal articles for extra background reading.

[alex***]

You will need a bnf but other than that doubt you really need other books

[ScoobyB4]

(Original post by petzneo)
Wow that was an old post...I have now recommended 2 books on the pharmacy degree guide

I was not a fan of learning from journals until I did my final year of uni. Although I understand the usefulness of them, I would still want the basics to be written in one book for me to read.

I tend to use journal articles for extra background reading.

Haha same here, did not like journals until they were/had to be bread and butter for the 4th year. I like journals from NEJM and/or Nature as the tend to write in a style akin to text books. Lots of diagrams